U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, wearing a button-down, collared blue shirt, sleeves rolled up, leans against an old school television set that is playing one of the many attack ads against him.

With nothing in the background, it's just Sestak, center stage, talking directly to the voters.

"Congressman Toomey and his friends on Wall Street have spent millions on attack ads like these," Sestak says, pointing to the TV. "Why? Big businesses have given Toomey a blank check because he believes they shouldn't pay any taxes. None." The camera pans to the TV set, which is showing footage of a laughing Pat Toomey and headlines about privatizing Social Security and Wall Street campaign donations.

Then the Sestak campaign recycles video footage of Toomey from a CNBC interview in July 2007 saying he favors eliminating "corporate taxes altogether."

As Congress continues to debate this week whether to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for just the middle class, as President Obama has suggested, or for everyone, as Republicans want, Sestak's newest ad aims to draw a clear distinction for voters between his support for the working class and Toomey's support for the rich.

"I support cutting taxes for the middle class, not the oil companies, not the big banks," Sestak says. "That's the difference."

Current Comments

I am in awe over the placement of the Toomey ad titled “After 30 years, a new era awaits” in Sunday’s edition. I bet Pat Toomey had to pay a fortune to get an ad on the front page. I admire the clever spin put on Toomey’s and Sestak’s record. Toomey is said to be a businessman (he actually reviewed the company’s books so his partner claims) and was the director of a Washington “think tank”. (actually the Club for Growth is a PAC that raised money for ultra conservative Republican candidates. While carefully called a “conservative” Toomey is actually a reactionary who would like to remove all impediments to business such as the EPA, FDA, DPW, IRS, SEC, Social Security, unemployment compensation and all financial regulation. A believer in trickle down economics Toomey would take us back to the era of the robber barons when businessmen cheated and poisoned the public, polluted the air and water and did whatever they wanted to make hundreds of millions without the bother of government regulation.
As for the Sestak part of the ad, I also admire singling out the image of Sestak emphasizing his support of a black youth designed to go over very big in the sometimes racist Lehigh Valley. The image of Sestak confusing his public with his “complicated anecdote “ of the sailor unhooking the airplane from the Aircraft Carrier’s steam catapult was also clever. The anecdote seemed clear enough to me and the Allentown crowd at the opening of Sestak’s office in Allentown. Apparently we are less ADHD and developmentally challenged than Mr. Itkowitz who found the anecdote confusing. I must admit that the thought of a “rarely focused” individual (three star Admiral Sestak) commanding an Aircraft Carrier battle group (such a battle group projects more military power than the entire world’s military in WWII) is amusing. Imagine such an unfocused person bombing the wrong country or grounding an entire battle group on a beach somewhere. Oops that didn’t happen and the ad of course doesn’t say that Sestak actually cares about the American people, real, flesh and blood people, whereas Toomey’s concern is for the American corporate bottom line. Well, never let the facts get in the way of a good political ad.
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Posted By: Richard Kohn | Sep 30, 2010 10:31:09 PM

Why does Charlie Dent keep lying (in his latest mailing and in his personal appearances) about the healthcare reform act cutting 500 billion from Medicare . This is a total fabrication. The Act saves money by transferring certain parts of the program, presently administered by private health insurance back to being administered by the Social. Security Administration. No benefits are affected. The savings is purely administrative. This has been explained hundreds of times and has become a non-issue except for Charlie Dent. It’s no wonder that a current joke goes as follows,” how can you tell when a Republican politician is lying? Answer: his mouth is moving.”

Posted By: Richard Kohn | Sep 30, 2010 10:50:38 PM

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